There are many instances in which it would be beneficial to download information from one party to another in association with a voice call between those parties. For example, retailers and restaurateurs could benefit from automatically offering operating hours, information on specials, or menu information to people calling their establishments. Further, both individuals and business owners could benefit by being able to provide location information or driving directions to their locations upon receiving a call from a caller.
Although there is a growing trend to associate multimedia-capable devices with voice terminals, such as wireline and mobile telephones, there is no technique available for readily downloading the above-mentioned types of information to a multimedia client in association with a telephone call originated from an affiliated telephone. In addition to simply providing information to a caller in an automated fashion, it would be of further benefit to allow the information provider, in most instances the called party or establishment, to be able to send more private information on demand to certain callers. In some cases, a list of authorized callers may be known, and in other cases, the offerer of information may want to authorize delivery of such information on an individual basis.
Unfortunately, there is no mechanism in place for providing automated, let alone on-demand information to a called party's multimedia client in association with a voice call, and as such, such a technique is needed to provide this functionality in an efficient and commercially viable manner.